Repeat Robocalls Suck? Blame the GOP

UPDATE: Laura Ingraham has asked her listeners to call the Dem Voter protection hotline — and they are now being flooded with calls from crank callers. Please call Laura and tell her what you think about this: 800.876.4123. You can e-mail her here. Apparently, voter intimidation and fraud are a joke to Laura Ingraham. Let's let her know that it is no joke.

UPDATE #2: More on Laura Ingraham: "caller indicated she is running a tape of Bill Clinton over and over saying "call 1-888 Dem Vote to report problems" — and then making fun of him, thus producing a spike in crank calls to the number" Protecting voter integrity is no joke. And I am not laughing. If anyone has audio of this, I'd love it.

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The corporate media has jumped on yesterday's reports of the NRCC robocall blitz. Not surprisingly, repeated phone calls from recorded messages slamming people…are really irritating. And people are pissed. Let's hope they take it out on the Republican party today — these tactics deserve a rebuke, not a reward.

An Ohio woman, who did not leave her name, called The Washington Post in tears yesterday, saying she could not keep her phone line open to hospice workers caring for her terminally ill mother because of nonstop political robo-calls.

Pamela Lorenz, a retired nurse in Roseville, Calif., called her own experience "harassment as far as I'm concerned" and said, "If I were voting right now, the opponent who's doing this, he'd be off my list for throwing that much trash."

Hour after hour and day after day for two weeks, Lorenz's home has received the same NRCC recorded message attacking Charlie Brown, the Democrat who is challenging Rep. John T. Doolittle (R) in a hard-fought battle in northeastern California. "It is a recorder calling," Lorenz said. "I can't call it back to get them to stop."

The calls are part of a telephone blitz that the Republican Party has unleashed in several dozen races that are likely to determine control of the House in Tuesday’s elections. And the repeat calls to the same homes have set off a new furor over campaign tactics, with the Democrats claiming the calls violate federal communications rules and are tantamount to harassment….

Democratic leaders contend that the messages violate federal rules that require groups making automated calls to identify themselves at the outset. And the National Republican Congressional Committee, which has financed the calls, agreed on Sunday to quit making some of them in New Hampshire, where a state law limits who can receive computerized phone messages….

Federal filings indicate that the [NRCC] has spent about $2 million on phone calls in the last week.

Shameful. Expected from a desperate bunch of cornered smarm merchants…but still shameful. Send them a message. Get out there and vote!

For a cheery update this morning in the face of all these phone calls, Howie has a link to Nate's latest video interview with Charlie Brown. Go Charlie — kick some Doolittle boo-tay today! And in my in-box, I just got a heads up that the latest polling from yesterday had Vic Wulsin up by three against Mean Jean. Here's hoping. What's the news from your district? How did voting go for you?

And if you have trouble voting, try these numbers:

1-888-DEM-VOTE for the DNC's voter hotline — this will get you directly to DNC lawyers and others to help with fraud issues.

Election Protection's 1-866-OUR-VOTE has live operators who can address some problems over the phone and dispatch lawyers on the ground, if necessary.

Common Cause's 1-866-MYVOTE-1 can help people find their polling place.

Christy Hardin Smith

Christy is a "recovering" attorney, who earned her undergraduate degree at Smith College, in American Studies and Government, concentrating in American Foreign Policy. She then went on to graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania in the field of political science and international relations/security studies, before attending law school at the College of Law at West Virginia University, where she was Associate Editor of the Law Review. Christy was a partner in her own firm for several years, where she practiced in a number of areas including criminal defense, child abuse and neglect representation, domestic law, civil litigation, and she was an attorney for a small municipality, before switching hats to become a state prosecutor. Christy has extensive trial experience, and has worked for years both in and out of the court system to improve the lives of at risk children.